Opponents of the proposal to legalize assisted death in Scotland warn that it is morally wrong to allow the state to help someone commit suicide.

Opponents against the aid of dying campaigners, including silent witness actor Liz Carr, held a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, hours before MSP voted for a free vote on the new legalization proposal.

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour Education spokesperson and one of the few people with disabilities MSPs in Holyrood, said it was wrong to view the issue as choice and personal autonomy. She added that this had far-reaching consequences.

She opposed the bill because “we are legislating to ask the state to assist someone in committing suicide and in other cases we want state legislation to make people live and live well”.

She added that this crossed a very important moral route. "No one wants to suffer; I have lived in chronic pain for 41 years, but the answer should be to make sure as much palliative care as possible."

The first phase of the vote on Tuesday will allow the bill to be reviewed in detail and amended by the MSP committee, but some prominent politicians objected, including all three of Scotland’s latest first ministers John Swinney, Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon.

The bill was originally introduced in 2021 by Scottish Liam McArthur, MSP, MSP Liam McArthur, to allow someone to ask for assisted dying if two doctors confirm they have advanced advanced disease.

The person must have intellectual capacity at death to understand his own decisions and the ability to execute procedures to end his life without someone’s help.

McArthur's bill does not include time limits; considering that the parallel bills in England and Wales require doctors to confirm that patients may die within six months or less.

In an Instagram post on Monday, she said Sturgeon said she was worried that the bill’s provisions on coercion would not stop “internal coercion” and that if the patient was not there, they might be “better” if they weren’t there.

“In the hearts of some people, this may make the right to death an obligation.”

Fraser Sutherland, CEO of the Scottish Humanism Society, plans to speak on Tuesday to support bills other than Holyrood, said the "overwhelming majority" of Scottish voters supported its measures and urged the MSP to be "bold, brave and compassionate".

"The bill is about compassion, dignity and basic choice," he said. "At present, too many terminally ill Scots are forced to suffer or die abroad simply because the law denies that they control the last moment. It's not humane, it has to change.

“Assisted dying is not a marginal idea, it is mainstream.”

McArthur, who is also one of the deputy presiding officials for Holyrood, said the current system has irrationally traumatized patients and their families, meaning those suffering “take things in their own hands” and that the wealthy have the ability to afford the assistance of dying in Switzerland.

"Scotland cannot postpone this conversation. Parliament cannot continue to leave the issue in the box of "too difficult"." "At least the time must be amended to see if a bill can be agreed to direct majority support and public confidence."